Why Europe is central to our work at the Tavistock Institute
During our AGM last month, Dr Thomas Spielhofer (Principal Consultant / Researcher) and Dr Mannie Sher (Director, Group Relations Programme and Principal Researcher / Consultant) both gave presentations that highlighted the centrality of Europe in our work at the Institute.
Cases of the Tavistock Institute’s intervening and learning from EU projects
Dr Thomas Spielhofer presented the Tavistock Institute’s experience of conducting EU-funded research projects, illustrating both the positive and some of the more challenging aspects of doing so.
This was done with reference to two ongoing research projects: EmerGent – which focuses on the use of social media data by emergency services, and NEETS at Risk: an innovation project aiming to develop an innovative methodology to identify and support young people at risk of becoming NEET (Young people who are not in education, employment or training). Both these projects have allowed the Tavistock Institute to apply innovative research methodologies to relevant fields of social and educational policy.
Presentation:
The Dynamics at the Heart of the Value Chain: Managing the Tension between Organisational Task and Inter-dependence in Value Chains
During his presentation Dr Mannie Sher described a set of emergent dynamics from his organisational development and culture change work with a number of global industrial and manufacturing enterprises. Mannie elaborated on the common leadership themes in global organisations – less command and control; more integrating and incorporating; less specialising and focus; more combining and unifying; constantly changing customer demand and supplier capability; a leadership working with diversity of cultures, roles and tasks, competencies and skills. In the run-up to the referendum on Europe, Mannie explained why Europe is central to our work. He pleaded for retaining Britain’s membership of the European Union and the freedom to work there, and the welcome British approaches to working with organisations receive. Mannie argued for inter-dependency with our European partners and linked this to ideas about the value chain and how success comes from a careful understanding of the complex needs of all players on both supply and customer sides.